Assisted suicide is a complicated subject, with many shades of gray that one must look at before forming a concrete opinion. Despite the past few weeks of reading about both sides of this issue, from a suicide note to the official position of the Catholic church, from the accounts of doctors to those of happy, handicapped people, it would take many more for me to see every shade in this elaborate spectrum. But for now, this is what I believe: I believe that it’s wrong for doctors to secretly euthanize patients. It wouldn’t anger me as much if they were at the same time advocating the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide, but the fact that they’re mercy-killing patients while at the same time publicly advocating against it quite frankly disgusts me. If you’re performing euthanasia anyway, then not advocate its legalization? Because you don’t want that to be an official part of your job description? I wish that more American doctors were like Dutch Dr. Pieter Admiraal, who both openly practices active euthanasia (albeit in a country in which it is legal under certain circumstances) and advocates it’s legalization, stating that, “To fail to practice voluntary euthanasia under some circumstances is to fail the patient.” It doesn’t matter whether or not his opinion is correct; what matters is that he’s willing to speak for it, unlike the American doctors who practice euthanasia while publicly standing in the firmest opposition of euthanasia. I believe that doctor-assisted suicide should be legalized in cases of terminal illnesses and permanently severe physical disabilities. However, such suicides need to be carefully considered first, with tests to make sure that such patients are mentally healthy, sure of their decision, and not influenced by outside sources such as family members and even doctors themselves. I believe in the idea of dying with dignity, because after hearing of cases of people degenerating into skeletons wracked with pain or unable to remain mentally competent or even conscious, I know that I would rather die smiling without my family having to suffer through seeing me in that state. However, contrary to Kevorkian, I don’t believe that the doctors should end the lives of patients through injection; I think it needs to be the patient who gives him/herself the life-ending drug, which the doctor only needs to provide. This may seem trivial, but in order for the suicide to be completely the choice of the patient, the doctor cannot be the one who administers the drug, as the death would then be his responsibility. This would also provide a safeguard against the worries of people like Alison Davis, who, as someone severely handicapped with myelomeningocele spina bifida, fears an eventual “…decriminalization of the act of killing a handicapped person of any age, just as it did in Hitler’s Germany”. This means that I agree with Alison Davis that doctors should not be permitted to withhold treatment from new born handicapped babies (unless they are so severely brain damaged that they lack the ability to think), but would also add that if these severely disabled babies grew up and wished to die, then they have the absolute right to do so, as long as it’s self-administered. If they’re quadriplegic, then they can drink a drug cocktail. If they can’t swallow, they can push the button that gives them the fatal injection, whether it’s with their hand or their head or even biting down on it with their teeth; however the task is accomplished, I believe that it needs to be performed by the patient, so that it is 100% their choice. So, with these specific opinions in my, my overall opinion is that people should have the right to kill themselves if they find that their quality of life isn’t good enough to warrant remaining alive. Though the decision of ending one’s life should be considered for a long period of time before being made, since suicide is such a permanent action, it should, in the end, be the right of a severely disabled or terminally ill person (or any person, for that matter). There is much opposition to the legalization of doctor assisted suicide, including doctors, handicapped persons, and Catholics, who follow the Declaration on Euthanasia, which states that “…we, without in any way hastening the hour of death, should be able to accept it with full responsibility and dignity”. But as much as those in stubborn opposition of assisted suicide would like to think that life is worth living no matter what, the fact is that different people have different opinions on the value of life, and I don’t think people have the right to prevent others from following their own personal beliefs. While Alison Davis can live happily with spina bifida, others are in situations similar to Chris Hill, who found his life as a paraplegic “…painful, frustrating, and completely unsatisfying”, and therefore chose to end it. As for me, I don’t know if I would choose to live or die if I became a quadriplegic, because unless I end up being in that physical state, I will never know if I feel that life as a quadriplegic is a life worth living. But what I do know is that I want to have that choice between life and death, and I want everyone to have that overall choice, because it should be their right has human beings.
Assisted suicide is a complicated subject, with many shades of gray that one must look at before forming a concrete opinion. Despite the past few weeks of reading about both sides of this issue, from a suicide note to the official position of the Catholic church, from the accounts of doctors to those of happy, handicapped people, it would take many more for me to see every shade in this elaborate spectrum. But for now, this is what I believe:
I believe that it’s wrong for doctors to secretly euthanize patients. It wouldn’t anger me as much if they were at the same time advocating the legalization of doctor-assisted suicide, but the fact that they’re mercy-killing patients while at the same time publicly advocating against it quite frankly disgusts me. If you’re performing euthanasia anyway, then not advocate its legalization? Because you don’t want that to be an official part of your job description? I wish that more American doctors were like Dutch Dr. Pieter Admiraal, who both openly practices active euthanasia (albeit in a country in which it is legal under certain circumstances) and advocates it’s legalization, stating that, “To fail to practice voluntary euthanasia under some circumstances is to fail the patient.” It doesn’t matter whether or not his opinion is correct; what matters is that he’s willing to speak for it, unlike the American doctors who practice euthanasia while publicly standing in the firmest opposition of euthanasia.
I believe that doctor-assisted suicide should be legalized in cases of terminal illnesses and permanently severe physical disabilities. However, such suicides need to be carefully considered first, with tests to make sure that such patients are mentally healthy, sure of their decision, and not influenced by outside sources such as family members and even doctors themselves.
I believe in the idea of dying with dignity, because after hearing of cases of people degenerating into skeletons wracked with pain or unable to remain mentally competent or even conscious, I know that I would rather die smiling without my family having to suffer through seeing me in that state.
However, contrary to Kevorkian, I don’t believe that the doctors should end the lives of patients through injection; I think it needs to be the patient who gives him/herself the life-ending drug, which the doctor only needs to provide. This may seem trivial, but in order for the suicide to be completely the choice of the patient, the doctor cannot be the one who administers the drug, as the death would then be his responsibility. This would also provide a safeguard against the worries of people like Alison Davis, who, as someone severely handicapped with myelomeningocele spina bifida, fears an eventual “…decriminalization of the act of killing a handicapped person of any age, just as it did in Hitler’s Germany”. This means that I agree with Alison Davis that doctors should not be permitted to withhold treatment from new born handicapped babies (unless they are so severely brain damaged that they lack the ability to think), but would also add that if these severely disabled babies grew up and wished to die, then they have the absolute right to do so, as long as it’s self-administered. If they’re quadriplegic, then they can drink a drug cocktail. If they can’t swallow, they can push the button that gives them the fatal injection, whether it’s with their hand or their head or even biting down on it with their teeth; however the task is accomplished, I believe that it needs to be performed by the patient, so that it is 100% their choice.
So, with these specific opinions in my, my overall opinion is that people should have the right to kill themselves if they find that their quality of life isn’t good enough to warrant remaining alive. Though the decision of ending one’s life should be considered for a long period of time before being made, since suicide is such a permanent action, it should, in the end, be the right of a severely disabled or terminally ill person (or any person, for that matter). There is much opposition to the legalization of doctor assisted suicide, including doctors, handicapped persons, and Catholics, who follow the Declaration on Euthanasia, which states that “…we, without in any way hastening the hour of death, should be able to accept it with full responsibility and dignity”. But as much as those in stubborn opposition of assisted suicide would like to think that life is worth living no matter what, the fact is that different people have different opinions on the value of life, and I don’t think people have the right to prevent others from following their own personal beliefs. While Alison Davis can live happily with spina bifida, others are in situations similar to Chris Hill, who found his life as a paraplegic “…painful, frustrating, and completely unsatisfying”, and therefore chose to end it. As for me, I don’t know if I would choose to live or die if I became a quadriplegic, because unless I end up being in that physical state, I will never know if I feel that life as a quadriplegic is a life worth living. But what I do know is that I want to have that choice between life and death, and I want everyone to have that overall choice, because it should be their right has human beings.